Transgender and the media

It is no secret, or rather it is a secret hidden in plain sight so very well, that transgender people receive little to no recognition in the media. They are either there for comedic relief or some cruel purpose, or not there at all. This goes for fictional media like movie and television as well as in the news (Though some artists like Ray Toro have been a hopeful sign that that is changing slightly for the better). It therefore delighted me when I read a New York Times article, not buried deep in the website, featured a story about the transgender community. The story talked about president Obama's plan to attack "conversion therapy" for transgender youth at a state level to ban it. It also brought to attention a huge case of transgender youth, Leelah Alcorn, who receive much less attention than she deserved for her tragic death to do a family that abused her identification as a female. The article gave me so much hope that maybe the media will really get the ball rolling on this issue and people will start to realize that as much as ethnic and racial minorities and gays and bisexuals and lesbians are mistreated by the media, transgenders are far more worse off and there needs to be significant change brought about to assure their well being, and feeling of a safe place in society, and that starts with good media representation to show those who are not transgender the real issues.